2006-02-01
An Oasis of Opportunity
While many large label converters have plunged into RFID, small to mid-sized label companies are exploring whether the financial benefits are realizable or just a mirage. RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID) is making waves in the tag and label industry. From any point of view, RFID has thoroughly and profoundly caught the attention of the entire industry. Industry suppliers have spent the last few years making avenues into RFID. In that same time, converters and their customers have hit the books, per se, filling seats at the numerous RFID seminars, conferences, and trade shows to learn about the technology and how it applies to
Diamond Packaging Named Best Place to Work
ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Diamond Packaging of Rochester, NY has again been recognized as "Best of the Best" in the 2005 Best Workplace in the Americas awards competition, sponsored by the Printing Industries of America (PIA) and Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF). The program is designed to recognize graphic arts companies for their outstanding human relations efforts in recruiting and retaining qualified staff, which contributes to a successful workplace. This year marks the fifth year in a row that the honor was bestowed on Diamond Packaging. A panel of experts carefully evaluated all of the entries and found that the human relations practices of Diamond Packaging were
Paper to Stay Strong
With competition from alternate decorating methods on the rise, paper holds its own in the label market. THERE'S GOT TO be more certainties out there than death and taxes, life is just too short. In the context of package printing, one thing for certain is that converters are continually being asked to print and deliver labels with quicker and quicker turnarounds. Knowing this as a constant in the formula of faster = better, printers are in a never-ending search for materials, equipment, and processes that will enhance their capabilities. For materials, statistics show that it's not always what's new that is better, as
The Science Behind Web Handling
The Web Handling Research Center studies the science and technology that drive web handling. WEB HANDLING IS a science every packaging printer or converter should understand. It's applied physics that carries a continuous-roll substrate through printing and/or converting machines with the goal being a defect-free end product. The Web Handling Research Center (WHRC), based at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., has spent the last 20 years studying this science. The WHRC was initiated in 1986 as a National Science Foundation center with a mission "to advance the knowledge base in technologies applicable to the transport and control of continuous-strip materials through processes and
